Many people carry around a container of direct-application personal products, such as lip balm, lip gloss, lipstick, sun screen, skin moisturizer, stick-form deodorants and antiperspirants, and other such products known to those of ordinary skill in the art. For example, frequently containers of lip products are carried around for on-the-go application of the lip products. Other products of a personal nature, such as stick deodorant or antiperspirant are carried to a gym or on a plane for use as needed during natural grooming processes away from home. Often, however, others who are not carrying such products desire or even ask to use some of the product. Because of the personal nature of the product and its contact with a personal body part during application, the owner of the product is hesitant to share it with another due to contamination concerns. Accordingly, there is an absence in the art for a suitable personal care product container that would permit someone to borrow the container and use a portion of the product without contaminating the remainder of the product.
Many types of prior art containers exist for dispensing direct-application personal products. Among these lip care containers are the stick-in-tube type, in which the product is substantially cylindrical and is housed in a container that is basically a hollow tube, often also containing an advancing mechanism. To dispense the product in a stick-and-tube type container, a user typically would advance the product manually through the tube laterally such that a portion of the product is exposed beyond one end of the tube for application of the product to the user's body; for example, to the lips in the case of lip balm, lip gloss or lipstick and to the underarm in the case of deodorant or antiperspirant. This can be achieved through any number of advancing mechanisms, such as a platform or other device that enables the user to push against the base of the product to move the product along the axis of the tube and out one end of the tube. Examples of sliding type mechanisms include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,551, to Kinney and U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,333, to Miyagawa, et al, which shows a slot and tongue arrangement, in which a platform against the base of the product includes a tongue that protrudes through a longitudinal slot in the tube such that a user can move the product axially in the tube by sliding the tongue along the slot to expose the end of the product outside the tube.
Another advancing mechanism, the dial-and-screw type mechanism, includes those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,935,191, to Leshin; U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,036, to Horvath; U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,821, to Barney, et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,058, to Hoffmann, each of which is incorporated herein by reference, in which a user can turn a dial, such as a the “fingerwheel” in U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,058, at the base of the tube to advance a platform axially and thereby advance the product seated against the platform axially to expose an end of the product outside the tube. Typically, where a dial is used to advance the product through the tube for application, the dial is located at the opposite end of the tube from the end from which the product projects.
When not in use, a protective cap may be placed over the end of the tube from which the product may project, thereby to cover the otherwise exposed product to prevent contamination of the product or product loss.
Among the stick-in-tube type of lip product containers are certain dual-ended containers, where product may be dispensed through each opposing end of the tube. In such an instance, typically two distinct products, such as two different colors of lipstick, are dispensed in the respective open ends, and often the container is symmetrical with respect to the two ends. This type of container has certain advantages, including the ability for a user to have two types of lipstick or lip gloss in a single container. Such dispensers, therefore, contemplate a situation in which a single user desires two separate options that will be chosen approximately equally as often. In any event, such dispensers are not directed to a situation in which a small reserve of product is maintained for a single or limited use by another without contamination of the primary supply of the personal care product. Moreover, even for those situations for which such dispensers are in fact designed, there are certain disadvantages to such containers, such as excessive or inconvenient length of the tube, non-discrete appearance, and the chance that at least one of the two products would be consumed in its entirety before the other, leading to potential waste, unneeded bulk and loss of the option that, in view of its faster consumption, apparently had been preferred.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for a personal care product dispenser that includes a conveniently located and configured secondary reserve for a relatively small amount of the personal care product that would permit application of the personal care product from the reserve without contamination of the primary supply of the personal care product.
Accordingly, the present new, unique and useful invention seeks to overcome these and other existing problems and needs in the art.